XM radio receivers will deliver up to 100 channels of crystal-clear, digital-quality music, news and information to users in their homes, cars and other listening environments. However, allowing a user to retrieve desired information by searching through a database can prove to be confusing and problematic. For example, how does the user insure that the music or information he was listening to is correctly determined from the data stored in the database? Also, the access to and completeness of the data should allow the user to easily browse and search for the information that is needed.
Over the years, however, the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have grown and their utilization has increased from a simple method of communication into a medium for storage, interactive accessing of information, and enablement of remote device control. The Internet and the WWW have captured the public's imagination as the so called “Information Super Highway”. Accessing information through the web has been used by the metaphorical term “surfing the web”.
However, the Internet is not a single network, nor does it have any single owner or controller. Rather, the Internet is a network of networks, both public and private, connected to each other. The resulting network utilizes security measures, such as fire walls, to prevent the spread of computer viruses, as well as the unauthorized access to account files and data. Given the proliferation of Internet viruses and web hackers, the utilization of security restrictions, such as fire walls, and other security measures in public and private networks remains in place and in the foreseeable future will necessarily continue to grow.
The WWW facilitates users interactive access to information, storage and remote control of devices by letting users or clients jump from one server or network to another, simply by selection of a word, picture, or program. In fact, when exploring the web today, a user navigates the web through the utilization of a “web browser”. There are many number of browsers presently in existence. Common examples of browsers include, Netscape's “Navigator”, Microsoft's “Explorer”, Mosiac's browser, and IBM's “Web Explorer”. A web browser allows a client access to servers and networks located throughout the world for storage, information, and remote device control. The information is provided to a client by the remote server by sending files or data packets to the requesting clients computer. However, with the use of fire walls and other security measures, the files or data packets sent by a remote server to a client's computer are blocked and not allowed access.